THAMESIDE AVIATION
MUSEUM

Sgt. Sidney. Victor. Evetts

HAWKER HURRICANE Mk1 L1599

56 SQUADRON US-C

NORTH WEALD

ESSEX

ENGLAND.

Monday 24th
April 1939, Sgt Sidney Victor Evetts
climb's into his Hawker Hurricane and
straps in, ready to do an hour of
aerobatic practice, the aircraft bursts
into life. As Sgt Evetts completes his
vital pre-flight checks, temp's and
pressure's ok, he turns the aircraft onto
the then grass runway, the Hurricane takes
to the air and heads to the east, the
time is 13.55hrs.

By 15.15hrs
the Hurricane and Sgt Evetts had not
returned and was then reported overdue.

At approximately
14.40 hrs over the village of Ingatestone, Essex
near the main A12 road the sound of an aircraft
could be heard, the aircraft broke cloud at
around 2'000 feet (600 metre) out of control and in
a steep dive, it vanished towards the village of
Margaretting. The Hurricane crashed into a meadow
at Newlands Farm, Margaretting, killing its pilot
Sgt Sidney Victor Evetts.

Hurricane Is of III Squadron
Early MkI Hurricane with ground crew

An inquest was held
at the Shire Hall, Chelmsford.

Witness; Police
Constable, Gilder

" I was stationary
in a motor car at 2.30pm, and heard the roar and
looked up to see an RAF mono plane dive slowly,
spiral and disappear behind the railway
line".

Witness; Police
Constable, Bland.

" Parts of the
aircraft were strewn over 200yds".

Identification;
Flt. Lt. Soden.of RAF North Weald.

Flt
Lt Soden Of RAF North Weald, proved it was Sgt Evetts by
his wallet and the number on the Gun Camera

VERDICT;

Coroner,
L.F. Beccles, recorded. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

The Dig 1977

The
excavation was carried out in September 1977, we had
located the area of the crash site three weeks before the
dig, after a search in the wrong area

shown to us by an eyewitness to the
crash, he was totaly sure of the field but infact we were
around 1 mile from the crash site.

A
view of the dig in 1977

This was due to the
fact that he had been around five years old at the time
of the crash, and the crash site had seemed a lot nearer
to his home than it was.

Luck was on our side
and we went for a drive with the witness and what we
found was an identical corner in the road around ½
a mile away, and the field did have a similar
look to the one he had shown us earlier and after a short
search with the detector the aircraft had been located.

The Watts two blade propeller boss

We carried out the
excavation in one day and a lot of good finds came to
light although we did not find the engine, this had been
removed in 1939.

Robin Hill
with the Spade Grip ( control column )

The
remains of L1599 are on display in the Museum, We have been
trying to trace a picture of Sgt Evetts since 1977 without
success .